Interview with universe at Anime Weekend Atlanta

VKEIOS: Fist off, welcome to Atlanta! How do you feel about your US debut here at Anime Weekend Atlanta?
haru: Thank you! We’re really happy that we got to perform in America, we never expected this to happen. We’re very grateful.

VKEIOS: Your latest CD, released April 15th, is your mini-album “Reverse 1”, could you tell us more about it?
haru: Reverse 1 is a concept album where we’ve played an acoustic version of five of our songs.

VKEIOS: What are some of the musicians that you respect who are your peers; artists and bands whom are around the same age?
universe: Arctic Monkeys. Panic at the Disco. SPYAIR. heidi.! (laugh) They’re more of a senpai.

VKEIOS: I asked heidi. this question, so I’d like to ask you as well. Which songs of heidi. do you most enjoy?
universe: Omaesan, Ryusei Dive, Kanada!

*Our lovely translator then shares that heidi. chose universe’s some “Magic” saying that it was a cool song, which they seemed very happy to hear.

VKEIOS: You’ll be going on tour when you return home to Japan, do you have any other actives planned as we head towards the end of the year?
KEIICHI: In November we have a 360-stage live where we’re in the center and the audience is surrounding us.

VKEIOS: Do you feel nervous to be surrounded while performing?
KAZUYA: We’re actually really looking forward to it, it’s one of our favorite kind of performances. We’d like to do a 360-live in the US too.

VKEIOS: Which song do you think best captures the ‘spirit’ of universe?haru: Magic or ouroboros, but we don’t want to limit that as one of our best because we put a lot of energy into all of our works. We think they’re all equally worthy of naming as the best.

VKEIOS:You’re currently working on reaching a worldwide audience, what other locations would you like to perform in?
universe: London and New York. California. We’d like to visit anywhere in California.

VKEIOS: You won the Grand Prix during the Lotte × Sony Music competition, could you tell us about the experience?
haru: The winner is chosen by the fans who are watching, so our goal was to perform in a way that would reach those people.

VKEIOS: Starting from KEIICHI, can each of you share something interesting about the member to your left?(laughter)
KEIICHI: There’s a huge gap with this guy, you look at him and he’s definitely not what he looks like. (laughs)
haru: When he drinks his attitude gets kind of… iffy. (laugh) But he’s really serious about music and he’s always really focused.
HIDE: KAZUYA’s problem is that he really wants to gain weight but it doesn’t matter what he does, he eats a lot, exercises, and he still can’t get any bigger than this. (laughs)
KAZUYA: KEIICHI likes alcohol and rock… and he really liked anime. Sorry that was a really boring answer (laugh)

VKEIOS: Thank you! (laughs) Do you have any closing statements that you’d like to share with our readers?haru: I really think that music is a powerful language that can reach many people. Music makes people feel things. We will come back one day, thank you so much for all of the fun times, the memories and the experiences we got to share.

Many thanks to universe for their time, as well as their manager, translators and AWA for making the interview possible.